New York State Electric And Gas Corporation Business Information, Profile, and History

History of New York State Electric And Gas Corporation

New York State Electric and Gas Corporation (NYSEG) serves central, eastern, and western New York State, an area which, though mostly rural, includes the cities of Binghamton, Elmira, Corning, and Ithaca. Its territory includes one-third of the state's land area and a tenth of its population. With more than 775,000 electric customers and almost 220,000 gas customers, NYSEG serves a diversified population of industry, agriculture, recreational facilities, and colleges and universities.

NYSEG traces its history back to October 28, 1852, when six Ithaca businessmen pledged a total of $75,000 and incorporated as the Ithaca Gas Light Company. The fledgling company soon laid mains and built a coal gas plant. In 1853 Ithaca's streets saw their first lamps.

In the thirty years following the founding of Ithaca Gas Light, the use of methane gas grew steadily. Street lighting was extended beyond affluent business districts, while homeowners and businesses obtained lights for evening hours.

However, beginning in the late 1870s and early 1880s, entrepreneurs began promoting the recently invented electric arc light as a superior and brighter street lighting system. In conjunction with the Brush-Electric Company and the Thomson-Houston Company, local businessmen financed arc lighting ventures in Geneva, Elmira, Binghamton, Ithaca, Auburn, and a variety of smaller New York State communities.

By the 1890s, the invention of the incandescent bulb, the central generating station, and alternating current spelled the eventual doom for the gas lighting business. Ithaca Gas Light officials saw what was happening and, showing a foresight uncommon among gas-lighting companies, began buying local electric companies.

In 1910 Ithaca Gas Light itself was acquired by Associated Gas & Electric, a utility holding company that had already consolidated several area utilities including the rival Ithaca Electric Light and Power Company. According to the official NYSEG History, during the first quarter of this century, more than 240 local companies or interests were absorbed, either directly by Ithaca Gas Light or by other utility companies that later combined to form the present company. Among the most prominent of these were Eastern New York Electric & Gas Corporation; New York Central Electric Corporation; Elmira Water, Light & Railroad Company; Binghamton Light, Heat & Power Company; Western New York Gas & Electric Corporation; and Empire Gas & Electric Company.

The company's growth was reflected in repeated name changes. In 1916 it became Ithaca Gas & Electric, in 1918 New York State Gas and Electric, in 1928 New York Electric Corporation, and in 1929, it was dubbed New York State Electric & Gas Corporation. By 1937 the company had reached its present service area size of about 35 percent of the state.

As a growing firm, the company needed new sources of power and better billing methods. Initially, electricity was generated by relatively small coal-fired turbines, and customers were billed a flat rate for each bulb no matter how much electricity they used. As demand grew, especially because of the growth of electric trolleys, the company built or acquired progressively larger steam generating plants. Likewise with increasing financial sophistication, a system of use-based metering was installed.

The trolley era soon passed in the United States. But despite the disappearance of one of its biggest customers, NYSEG continued to experience growth in demand. Service, which initially had been limited to evening hours, was expanded to twenty-four hours a day. Electric appliances became popular. Farmers used electricity to shorten egg-laying cycles, and both industry and business eventually found electrical service indispensable.

In response to increasing demand, the company built a series of large diesel and coal-fired generators. In 1917 it completed Goudey Station in Binghamton. The first unit of its 163,000 kilowatt Greenidge plant followed in 1938, the first unit of its 73,000 kilowatt Jennison Station was brought on line in 1945, and the first unit of its 87,000 kilowatt Hickling Station was completed in 1948.

While NYSEG executives dealt with the everyday activities of the electric company, ultimate control was maintained by the holding company, General Public Utilities Corporation. In 1935, Congress passed the Public Utilities Holding Company Act, which limited holding companies to one integrated utility system and in general led holding companies to divest the utilities they controlled. In NYSEG's case, divestment was delayed by World War II. Finally, in 1949, General Public Utilities Corporation sold all 880,000 shares of company stock to the public, making NYSEG an independent, investor-owned utility.

To run the company, the newly independent board of directors recruited Joseph M. Bell, Jr., who had previously been in the corporate financing, utility engineering, and consulting businesses in New York City. Bell came to power amidst the postwar economic expansion, which for electric utilities translated into increased demand. In 1951 he built an addition to the Hickling plant. Then, in 1955 and 1958, he completed the two units of the 318,000 kilowatt Milliken plant on Cayuga Lake. By the end of the decade, revenues exceeded $100 million and earnings surpassed $5.7 million.

Bell's ambitious construction program satisfied demand for the remainder of the decade and through much of the 1960s. In fact it was not until 1965--when NYSEG and the Pennsylvania Electric Company began construction of a 1,910,000 kilowatt, three-unit plant at the mouth of a coal mine in Homer City, Pennsylvania, with two units to come on line in 1969 and the third in 1977--that the company again began building.

On November 9, 1965, a massive power failure hit the Northeast. In its wake, NYSEG and the other major New York State utilities began searching for ways to avoid future blackouts. In July 1966 they formed the New York Power Pool to insure greater reliability and assist members in buying electricity during periods of peak demand. The following year they announced they would build what the Wall Street Journal called 'a single energy control center near Albany to control all their generation and long-distance transmission of electricity.'

This spirit of cooperation remained in the air, and in June 1967 NYSEG executives and executives of Syracuse-based Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation announced they were considering a merger. The two companies initiated studies of the proposal but, with the help of Chicago consulting firm Duff & Phelps, concluded that the high cost of credit and the degree to which NYSEG and Niagara Mohawk were already cooperating made merger both financially unattractive and, from a cost cutting standpoint, unnecessary.

Meanwhile, the far-reaching effects of the blackout had revealed the accuracy of energy requirement projections: the company needed new generating capacity to satisfy future demand. In March 1967 NYSEG president William Lyons announced plans to build a nuclear generating plant. The following May, the company released details of a proposed $135 million 830,000-kilowatt facility. Scheduled to go into operation in May 1973, what became known as Bell Station would be built on Cayuga Lake, 16 miles north of Ithaca, using a General Electric reactor and turbine.

Lyons, who became chief executive officer on July 1, 1968, was a believer in nuclear power. His term was marked by a variety of attempts to build nuclear power plants, most of which were thwarted by environmentalists, regulatory authorities, or rising costs.

In April 1969 a controversy over 'thermal pollution' led him to postpone construction at Bell Station. NYSEG had planned to discharge hot water directly into Cayuga Lake. Environmentalists protested that such a discharge would adversely affect the lake's ecosystem and wanted the utility to build cooling towers instead. In announcing the postponement, Lyons said that the ultimate plan for the plant must 'provide assurance of protection of Cayuga Lake' and also be 'economically practical.'

Because two units of the Homer City coal plant had gone on line in 1969, the supply of electric power was not immediately pressing. The supply of natural gas, however, posed a problem. NYSEG was still distributing natural gas, and in 1970 nationwide shortages of developed natural gas led pipeline operators to limit new sales commitments. NYSEG's first reaction was to announce it might decline to accept new industrial gas customers whose annual needs exceeded 12 million cubic feet. The situation worsened, and on December 30, 1974, New York state officials ordered the company to stop accepting any new gas customers.

The early 1970s was a time of economic difficulty for United States utilities. Between 1969 and 1971 coal prices rose 45 percent. Rising interest rates caused higher capital costs, and down time at Homer City pressured earnings. In view of this combination of events, the company asked for and received rate relief.

In July 1973 Lyons finally abandoned the Bell Station nuclear power plant. Environmental concerns and expected legal and regulatory delays had weighed heavily against pressing forward. 'It is our judgment,' read a company statement, 'that the necessary regulatory approval cannot be obtained in a time frame which would permit the operation of the plant when it will be needed to meet the energy requirements of our service area.' The company claimed it planned to build a conventional, coal-fired generating plant on the same site, but no such plant was ever built.

NYSEG's nuclear woes were not uncommon. New York State's other major utilities also were experiencing complications in getting new generating facilities financed and approved. Hoping for strength in numbers, the seven largest New York State utilities formed Empire State Power Resources, Inc. in April 1974. Never approved by regulators, the proposed company's purpose would have been to build and finance new power plants.

Despite its previous nuclear setback, on June 4, 1975, NYSEG announced it had become an 18 percent partner in Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation's 1.1 million-kilowatt Nine Mile Point No. 2 atomic unit. Projected to cost $1.1 billion and begin operations in 1982, the Nine Mile plant had already been delayed for over a year when NYSEG joined the project.

A month later the company revised previous plans to build a two-unit nuclear power plant at Somerset, New York, and announced it would instead build a coal-fired plant at a nearby site where a geological fault had been found.

The following February, NYSEG and the Long Island Lighting Company signed agreements to buy half interests in nuclear power facilities each planned to build. At the time of the signing, none of these proposed plants had yet received construction clearance. NYSEG never became a participant in any of them.

While Lyons and NYSEG president Wells P. Allen, Jr. worked to build new generating capacity, the natural gas shortage worsened. In January 1977 NYSEG was forced to curtail deliveries to customers in some 30 industries. The company scrambled to find supplementary sources and eventually paid four to five times the wholesale price to obtain supplies of gas from Brooklyn Union Gas and Algonquin Gas Transmission Co., an affiliate of Eastern Gas & Fuel Associates.

In 1977 Charles F. Kennedy became NYSEG chairman and chief executive officer. A board member since 1955, he first joined the company in March 1974 as executive vice president of administration. As of 1978, revenues exceeded $500 million for the first time. The following year, the company began construction of Somerset Station, its first large new generation facility since the first two units of Homer City were completed in 1969.

At 850,000 kilowatts, the coal-fired Somerset was also the first generating plant into which NYSEG fully figured environmental costs. Expected to cost $980 million (later increased to $1.051 billion), the project included a $300 million wet-limestone scrubber designed to remove sulfur dioxide from exhaust gasses. In the scrubbing process, a limestone slurry (mixture of limestone--chiefly composed of calcium carbonate--in water) is combined with flue gases to produce calcium sulfite, which is then mixed with fly ash and lime and buried in a large on-site solid waste disposal area. The Somerset plans also included a $60 million 16-mile company owned railroad to connect the plant with mainline rail facilities and four 90-car trains to bring coal from mines in southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The ambitious building program the company had attempted to pursue was based on projections of rapidly increasing demand. After electric sales fell three percent in 1982, executives began to reassess future needs. They saw that while 1982's decline was in part a function of the recession, future demand would probably not grow at the same rate it had in most of the postwar period.

Late in 1982, the company began to show the kind of enlightened corporate citizenship it came to be known for later in the decade. It joined the American Red Cross in project SHARE which helps needy elderly and disabled customers overcome energy emergencies.

In May 1983 Wells P. Allen, president since 1976, advanced to the posts of chairman and chief executive officer. Allen was the first chief executive since William Lyons to see the completion of new electric generating capacity. In 1983 the company completed the largest of its nine hydroelectric plants, the 16.8 megawatt Upper Mechanicsville Hydro Station on the Hudson River north of Albany.

The following year NYSEG completed Somerset Station (now known as Kintigh Station, having been renamed after the company's later president, Allen E. Kintigh) on Lake Ontario in Niagara County. Despite having some of the nation's most advanced environmental protection equipment, Somerset was completed ten weeks early and $70 million under budget. The same year NYSEG surpassed $1 billion in revenues for the first time.

Allen was not so fortunate with the Nine Mile Point 2 nuclear plant. Delays and costs spiraled out of control. The Public Service Commission looked on suspiciously and let it be known it did not consider all the plant's costs prudent and recoverable. In 1986 the utilities proposed to cap recoverable costs at $4.45 billion in exchange for an agreement for the Public Service Commission to drop a two-year inquiry into alleged mismanagement of the plant's construction. When the commission finally capped costs at $4.16 billion, Standard & Poor's put NYSEG securities on its CreditWatch list.

The commission's decision had a direct effect on NYSEG's bottom line. In 1986 higher electric sales and reduced capital costs had led NYSEG to record earnings of $3.86 per share. After the Public Service Commission capped recoverable costs, NYSEG wrote off $382 million and reduced its quarterly dividend from 66 to 50 cents, marking the company's first ever lowering of dividends. By year's end NYSEG was $191 million in the red. The Nine Mile Point 2 plant was finally put in service in spring 1988, with NYSEG receiving 196,000 kilowatts of the generated power.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the company returned to financial health. It found its place in the community and reassessed its potential for growth. In an innovative program, NYSEG customer representatives helped indigent or disabled customers navigate the social welfare system and obtain aid to pay their electric bills.

In 1989 the company examined its potential for growth through a planning program called 'NYSEG 2000: A Vision for the Future.' Executives explored ways the company's potential could be maximized and decided to target the natural gas business. In a 1990 letter to stockholders, chairman and chief executive officer James A. Carrigg and President Kintigh described a natural gas strategy of 'aggressive marketing, emphasis on adding new franchises and various service activities closely related to natural gas distribution, coupled with a continued effort to reduce purchased natural gas costs.'

As a first step in this process, NYSEG acquired Columbia Gas of New York, Inc. in April 1991, from Columbia Gas System, Inc., for $57.5 million. Based in Binghamton like NYSEG, Columbia Gas of New York's 68,000 customers increased NYSEG's natural gas customer count by 40 percent.

Along with improving its natural gas business, NYSEG is searching for ways to comply with the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990, which require it to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from 138,000 tons in 1989 to 70,000 tons by the year 2000.

Principal Subsidiaries: Somerset Railroad Corp.

Related information about New York

pop (2000e) 18 976 500; area
127 185 km²/49 108 sq mi. State in NE USA,
divided into 62 counties; the ‘Empire State’; second most populous
state; one of the original states of the Union, 11th to ratify the
Federal Constitution, 1788; explored by Hudson and Champlain, 1609;
Dutch established posts near Albany, 1614, settled Manhattan, 1626;
New Netherlands taken by the British, 1664; scene of several
battles in the American Revolution (eg Saratoga); capital, Albany;
other chief cities, New York City, Syracuse, Yonkers, Rochester,
Buffalo; Hudson R flows S through the E state, St Lawrence R part
of the N border, Delaware R part of the S border; Niagara Falls in
W; Adirondack Mts rise in the N, Catskill Mts in the S; highest
point in the Adirondacks at Mt Marcy (1629 m/5344 ft);
state contains 11 334 km²/4375 sq mi of the
Great Lakes, as well as L Oneida and the Finger Lakes in the C;
extensive woodland and forest in the NE, elsewhere a mixture of
cropland, pasture, and woodland; clothing, pharmaceuticals,
publishing, electronics, automotive and aircraft components; dairy
products, corn, beef; New York City the chief ethnically mixed
centre of population in the USA.

text-align:center;">The Empire State

State animal

Beaver(Castor
canadensis)

State bird

Eastern
Bluebird(Sialia sialis)

State freshwater fish

Brook
Trout

State saltwater fish

Striped
Bass

State insect

Ladybug

State flower

Rose(Rosa)

State motto

"Excelsior!"

State song

"I Love New
York"

State tree

Sugar
Maple(Acer saccharum)

State fossil

Sea
Scorpion(Eurypterus remipes)

State gem

Garnet

State beverage

Milk

State reptile

Snapping
Turtle

State fruit

Apple

State shell

Bay
Scallop

State muffin

Apple
Muffin

New York is a state in the northeastern
United States.

Geography

New York's borders touch (clockwise from the northwest) two
Great Lakes
(Erie and Ontario, which are
connected by the Niagara River); the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada; three New England states (Vermont, Massachusetts, and
Connecticut); the
Atlantic Ocean,
and two Mid-Atlantic states (New Jersey and Pennsylvania). In addition, Rhode Island shares a water
border with New York.

New York is also the site of the only extra-territorial enclave within the boundaries of
the U.S., the United
Nations compound on Manhattan's East River.

Early settlement

The first European settlers in the area now known as the State
of New York were Dutch settlers in the colony known as New Amsterdam, beginning
in 1613. The English
traded the modern-day country of Suriname for New Amsterdam in 1664; The colony, then
called the Province of New York, was divided into twelve counties, each of which was
subdivided into towns. Two of New York's eastern coastal counties,
Cornwall and Dukes, later became parts of Massachusetts and Maine.

Statehood

New York was one of the original thirteen colonies that became the United States. It was the
11th state to ratify the United States
Constitution, on July
26, 1788.

Origin

The Dutch, who began to establish trading-posts on the Hudson River in 1613,
claimed jurisdiction over the territory between the Connecticut and the
Delaware Rivers,
which they called New Netherlands. The government was vested in "The United New
Netherland Company," chartered in 1614, and then in "The Dutch West
India Company," chartered in 1622.

In 1649, a convention of the settlers petitioned the "Lords
States-General of the United Netherlands" to grant them
"suitable burgher government, such as their High Mightinesses shall
consider adapted to this province, and resembling somewhat the
government of our Fatherland," with certain permanent privileges
and exemptions, that they might pursue "the trade of our country,
as well along the coast from Terra Nova to Cape Florida as to the West Indies and Europe, whenever our Lord God shall be pleased to
permit."

The directors of the West India Company resented this attempt to
shake their rule and wrote their director and council at New
Amsterdam: "We have already connived as much as possible at the
many impertinences of some restless spirits, in the hope that they
might be shamed by our discreetness and benevolence, but,
perceiving that all kindnesses do not avail, we must, therefore,
have recourse to God to Nature and the Law. We accordingly hereby
charge and command your Honors whenever you shall certainly
discover any Clandestine Meetings, Conventicles or machinations
against our States government or that of our country that you
proceed against such malignants in proportion to their
crimes."

These grants embraced all the lands between the west bank of the
Connecticut
River and the east bank of the Delaware.

The Duke of
York previously purchased in 1663 the grant of Long Island and other
islands on the New
England coast made in 1635 to the Earl of Stirling, and
in 1664 he equipped an armed expedition which took possession of
New Amsterdam,
which was thenceforth called New York. This constitution was framed
by a convention which assembled at White Plains, New
York on July 10,
1776, and after repeated
adjournments and changes of location, terminated its labors at
Kingston, New
York on Sunday evening, April 20, 1777,
when the constitution was adopted with but one dissenting vote.
This imbalance of power between the branches of state government
kept the elite firmly in control, and disenfranchised most
New Yorkers who would fight the Revolutionary War.
Slavery was legal in New York until 1827.

Under this constitution, the Assembly had a provision for a maximum
of 70 Members, with the following apportionment:

For the city (at the time, New York City included only what
is today Manhattan) and county of New York, nine.

The city and county of Albany, ten

The county of Dutchess, seven.

The county of Westchester, six.

The county of Ulster, six.

The county of Suffolk (eastern Long Island), five.

The county of Queens (Now Queens and Nassau Counties),
four.

The county of Orange (Now Orange and Rockland Counties),
four.

The county of Kings (Brooklyn), two.

The county of Richmond (Staten Island), two.

Tryon County (Now Montgomery County), six.

Charlotte County (Now Washington County.), four.

Cumberland County (Partitioned January 15, 1777 for the creation of the State of Vermont.),
three.

Gloucester County (Partitioned January 15, 1777 for the creation of the State of Vermont.),
two.

This apportionment was to stand unchanged until a period of
seven years from the end of the Revolution had expired, whereupon a
census was held to correct the apportionment.

On the subject of Disenfranchisement, Article VII of the new constitution
had the following to say:

VII. if, during the time aforesaid, he shall have been a
freeholder, possessing a freehold of the value of twenty
pounds, within the said county, or have rented a tenement therein
of the yearly value of forty shillings, and been rated and actually
paid taxes to this State: Provided always, That every
person who now is a freeman of the city of Albany, or
who was made a freeman of the city of New York on or before
the fourteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand
seven hundred and seventy-five, and shall be actually and
usually resident in the said cities, respectively, shall be
entitled to vote for representatives in assembly within his said
place of residence.

For more information on this constitution, see: New York
State Constitutions

Westward expansion

The western part of New York had been settled by the six nations
of the Iroquois
Confederacy for at least 500 years before Europeans came. The
Sullivan
Expedition moved northward through the Finger Lakes and Genesee Country, burning
all the Iroquois communities and destroying their crops and
orchards. The Hudson and Mohawk Rivers could be navigated only as far as Central
New York. While the St. Lawrence River could be navigated to Lake Ontario, the way
westward to the other Great Lakes was blocked by Niagara Falls, and so the
only route to western New York was over land. Governor DeWitt Clinton strongly
advocated building a canal to connect the Hudson River with
Lake Erie, and thus
all the Great Lakes.
The Welland Canal
was completed in 1833, bypassing Niagara Falls to connect Lakes Ontario and
Erie.

Sullivan's men returned from the campaign to Pennsylvania and New England to tell of the
enormous wealth of this new territory.

Demographics

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2005, New York was the third
largest state in population after California and Texas, with an estimated population of 19,254,630
factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFPopulation?_event=Search&_name=&_state=04000US36&_county=&_cityTown=&_zip=&_sse=on&_lang=en&pctxt=fph,
which is an increase of 27,542, or 0.1%, from the prior year and an
increase of 277,809, or 1.5%, since the year 2000.

The top ancestry groups in New York are African American
(15.8%), Italian (14.4%), Irish (12.9%), and German (11.1%),

New York contains the country's largest Dominican population
(concentrated in Upper Manhattan) and largest Puerto Rican population
(concentrated in the Bronx). Brooklyn and the Bronx are home to many African-Americans and
Queens has a large
population of Latin American origin, as well as the state's largest
Asian-American
population.

The 2000 Census revealed which ancestries were in which counties.
Italian-Americans make up the largest ancestral group in
Staten Island and Long Island, followed by Irish-Americans.
According to the July 1, 2004 Census Bureau Estimatefactfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=04000US36&-_box_head_nbr=GCT-T1&-ds_name=PEP_2004_EST&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-mt_name=PEP_2004_EST_GCTT1_ST2&-format=ST-2&-_sse=on,
New York City and
its six closest New York State satellite counties (Suffolk,
Nassau, Westchester, Rockland,
Putnam
and Orange) have a combined population of 12,626,200 people,
or 65.67% of the state's population.

New York State has a higher number of Italian-Americans than any
other U.S. state.

Religion

As of 2006, the religious affiliations of New York citizens
were:

40.0% Protestant,

38.9% Roman Catholic,

7.3% Baptist,

6.1% Methodist,

5.5% Episcopal,

3.2% Presbyterian,

17.9% Non-religious

3.4% Jewish,

2.0% Muslim,

The Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan contains the
shrine and burial place of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (Mother Cabrini), the
patron saint of immigrants and the first American citizen to be
canonized.

At Chautauqua Lake in the southwestern portion of the state is the
Chautauqua
Institution, co-founded by Methodist Reverend John Vincent and
devoted to adult continuing education in an uplifting setting, as
that ambiance was understood in the last half of the Nineteenth
Century. While some aspects of this pedagogy may seem quaint today,
the Institution helped assure that high intellectual achievement
would be recognized as consistent with the value system of an
emerging powerful Midwest, and was one of several ways that Upstate New York served
between the Civil
War and World War
II as a transmitting intermediary between the standards of the
East Coast and the interior agricultural regions of the central
states.

Important cities and towns

New York City
is both the largest city in the United States, and home to over two-fifths of the
population of the entire state. It is the leading center of
banking, finance and communication in the United
States and is the location of the New York Stock
Exchange (NYSE) on Wall Street, Manhattan. Bureau of Economic
Analysis estimates that in 2004, the total gross state product
was $963.5 billionwww.bea.gov/bea/newsrel/gspnewsrelease.htm, ranking 3rd
behind California and
Texas. New York's agricultural outputs are
dairy products, cattle and other livestock, vegetables, nursery
stock, and apples. Its
industrial outputs are printing and publishing, scientific instruments, electric
equipment, machinery, chemical products, and tourism.

Many of the world's largest corporations locate their headquarter's
home offices in Manhattan or in nearby Westchester
County, New York. The Fulton Fish Market has been moved from
Fulton
Street in Manhattan to The Bronx.

New York's mining sector is concentrated in three areas.

Agriculture

New York State is an agricultural leader, ranking within the top
five states for agricultural products including dairy, apples, cherries, cabbages, potatoes, onions, maple
syrup and many others. The south shore of Lake Ontario provides
the right mix of soils and
microclimate for
many apple, cherry, plum,
pear and peach orchards. The state has 30,000 acres (120 km²) of
vineyards, 212 wineries, and produced 200 million bottles of wine
in 2004.

New York was heavily glaciated in the ice age leaving much of the state with deep, fertile,
though somewhat rocky soils. Row crops, including hay, corn, wheat,
oats, barley, and soybeans, are grown.
Particularly in the western part of the state, sweet corn, peas, carrots, squash, cucumbers and other vegetables are grown. The glaciers also left numerous
swampy areas, which have been drained for the rich humus soils called muckland which is mostly used
for onions, potatoes, celery and other vegetables. Cheese is a major product, often produced by
Amish or Mennonite farm cheeseries. The
honeybees are also used for pollination of fruits and vegetables. Most commercial beekeepers are migratory, taking their hives to
southern states for the winter. Buffalo also has a lightrailsystem, and Rochester had a
subway system, although it is mostly destroyed. Only a small part
exists under the old Erie Canal Aquaduct.

New York City

New York City is home to the most complex and extensive
transportation network in the United States, with more than 12,000
iconic yellow cabs, 120,000 daily bicyclists, a massive subway system, bus
and railroad systems, immense airports, landmark bridges and
tunnels, ferry service and even an aerial commuter
tramway. About one in every three users of mass transit in the
United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in
New York and its suburbs.

Many suburban commuter railroad lines enter and leave New York
City, including the Long Island Rail Road, MTA Metro-North, the PATH system
and many of NJTransit's rail services.

Law and government

As in all fifty states, the head of the executive branch of
government is a Governor. The legislative branch is called the Legislature
and consists of a Senate and an Assembly. Unlike most states, the New York
electoral law permits electoral fusion, and New York ballots tend to have, in
consequence, a larger number of parties on them, some being permanent minor
parties that seek to influence the major parties and others being
ephemeral parties formed to give major-party candidates an
additional line on the ballot.

New York's legislature is notoriously dysfunctional. Other
officially incorporated governmental units are towns, cities, and villages.

Many of New York's public services are carried out by public benefit
corporations, frequently known as authorities or
development corporations. The most famous examples are
probably the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which
oversees New York City's subway, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (actually a
bi-state agency). New York State has its counties pay a higher
percentage of welfare costs than any other state, and New York
State is the only state which requires counties to pay a portion of
Medicaid.

The court system in New York is often cited as assigning
unintuitive names to its courts: the New York Supreme
Court, which people often assume is "supreme" in the same sense
as the Supreme Court of the United States, is not the highest
court in the state (the New York Court of Appeals is). These courts are
the starting point for all criminal cases outside cities, and
handle a variety of other matters including small claims, traffic ticket cases and
local zoning matters.
Presidential candidate John Kerry won New York State by 18 percentage points in
2004, while Al Gore had an even bigger margin of a win in New York
State in 2000. Many of the state's other urban areas, including
Albany, Ithica, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuseare also Democratic. Heavily populated
suburban areas such as Westchester County and Long Island usually hold the power in determining
state elections and have tended to favor Republicans at the state
level and Democrats at the federal level but that trend seems to be
changing since the past few elections, with Democrats picking up
some more power statewide in both regions.

Because New York State consistently votes Democratic in national
elections, many observers argue the state is insignificant in
presidential contests.

Education

Primary, middle-level, and secondary education

The University of the State of New York (USNY), its
policy-setting Board of Regents, and USNY's administrative arm, the
New York State Education Department (NYSED), oversee all
public primary, middle-level, and secondary education in the state. However, as is found in most
other US states, individual school districts in New York have much latitude in
exercising management and policy for such education within their
district boundaries.

New York is one of seven states that mandates that Holocaust and genocide studies be taught at
some point in elementary or secondary schools' curriculum. New York
City operates the City University of New York (CUNY) in conjunction
with the state.

New York's land-grant university is Cornell University,
a private university.

New York is the nation?s largest importer of college students,
according to statistics which show that among freshmen who leave
their home states to attend college, more come to New York than any
other state, including California.The New York Observer. www.observer.com/printpage.asp?iid=13093&ic=Editorials

See also Education in New York City, list of Colleges and Universities in the State of New
York

Professional sports teams

Club

Sport

League

Buffalo
Bills

Football

National Football League

New York
Jets

Football

National Football League;(plays in East
Rutherford, New Jersey)

New York
Giants

Football

National Football League;(plays in East Rutherford,
New Jersey)

New York
Knicks

Basketball

National Basketball Association

New Jersey
Nets

Basketball

National Basketball Association;(plays in East
Rutherford, New Jersey - planning move to the Brooklyn Nets
Arena at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn)

New York
Liberty

Basketball

Women's National Basketball Association

Rochester Raging Rhinos

Soccer

USL First
Division

Red Bull
New York

Soccer

Major
League Soccer;(plays in East Rutherford, New
Jersey)

Buffalo
Sabres

Ice
Hockey

National Hockey League

New York
Islanders

Ice Hockey

National Hockey League

New York
Rangers

Ice Hockey

National Hockey League

Adirondack Frostbite

Ice Hockey

United
Hockey League

Albany
River Rats

Ice Hockey

American Hockey League

Binghamton Senators

Ice Hockey

American Hockey League

Elmira
Jackals

Ice Hockey

United
Hockey League

Rochester Americans

Ice Hockey

American Hockey League

Syracuse
Crunch

Ice Hockey

American Hockey League

New York
Mets

Baseball

Major
League Baseball

New York
Yankees

Baseball

Major League Baseball

Brooklyn
Cyclones

Baseball

Minor
League Baseball

Staten
Island Yankees

Baseball

Minor League Baseball

Binghamton
Mets

Baseball

Minor League Baseball

Buffalo
Bisons

Baseball

Minor League Baseball

Jamestown
Jammers

Baseball

Minor League Baseball

Batavia
Muckdogs

Baseball

Minor League Baseball

Rochester Red Wings

Baseball

Minor League Baseball

Auburn
Doubledays

Baseball

Minor League Baseball

Syracuse
SkyChiefs

Baseball

Minor League Baseball

Oneonta
Tigers

Baseball

Minor League Baseball

Tri-City Valley Cats

Baseball

Minor League Baseball

Hudson Valley Renegades

Baseball

Minor League Baseball

Long
Island Ducks

Baseball

Atlantic League of Professional Baseball

New York
Dragons

Arena
football

Arena
Football League

Long
Island Lizards

Lacrosse

Major
League Lacrosse

Rochester
Rattlers

Lacrosse

Major League Lacrosse

Buffalo
Bandits

Lacrosse

National Lacrosse League

Rochester Knighthawks

Lacrosse

National Lacrosse League

New York Titans

Lacrosse

National Lacrosse League

Brooklyn
Wonders

Basketball

American Basketball Association

Buffalo
Silverbacks

Basketball

American Basketball Association

Rochester Razorsharks

Basketball

American Basketball Association

Strong
Island Sound

Basketball

American Basketball Association

Albany
Patroons

Basketball

Continental Basketball Association

Navy vessel namesakes

There have been at least five United States Navy
ships named USS
New York in honor of the state. USS New
York (LPD-21) was laid down on September 10 2004 and
will be the sixth Navy ship to be named for the state.

See also

Administrative divisions of New York

List of New York counties

List of cities in New York

List of towns in New York

List of villages in New York

List of census-designated places in New
York

List of New York Governors

List of New York State Attorneys
General

List of political parties in New York

New York public benefit corporations

Politics
of New York

Scouting
in New York

New York
City

Elections in New York

Large Cities Climate Leadership Group

References

Additional topics

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